


Ariadne and the Minotaur

by Ruuger



Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: F/M, Girl Saves Boy, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-18
Updated: 2011-08-18
Packaged: 2017-10-22 19:01:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/241449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruuger/pseuds/Ruuger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When he gets lost, she's the one who has to help him back home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ariadne and the Minotaur

They've done this so many times already. Donned their costumes and played their roles on this stage of his creation, their cues and lines changing ever slightly. She feels the weight of her totem in her hand, heavier at each twist and turn of the labyrinth, and there's a part of her that wants to give up, to just turn around and save herself, but her love for him keeps her on her path.

_Wake up._

* * *

The Minotaur is watching her from across the room. It looks exactly like she expected, and yet at the same time completely wrong. Glass breaks under her feet as she steps closer, fascinated by the creature she is finally facing. Its eyes are filled with dark malice, and it bares its teeth, snarling, as she approaches it.

Mal.

The bad one.

The monster that lurks in the shadows of his mind.

The Minotaur mirrors her movement, circles around her until they are standing face to face, and she finds herself unable to look away from it, almost as if it was holding her under a thrall. She carefully raises her hand and reaches to touch the Minotaur, her curiosity getting the better of her. The Minotaur's nostrils flare as it snaps at her hand with its pearly white teeth, and laughs.

"Don't you understand that it doesn't matter where the train goes," it says, and then lunges forward like a striking adder.

She scrambles backwards, trying to escape, but the Minotaur is too fast, and pulls her into an embrace.

"As long as we're together," it whispers in her ear, before Dom pulls them apart again.

_Wake up._

* * *

Every time they do this, she shows him the place where they first met. She folds the world to embrace him in her arms, shows him what he used to do to her, but his eyes are blinded by fabricated guilt, and he looks away, summoning the Minotaur to protect him.

He's right in that you should never build from memories, but the reason he gives her is wrong. You should never build on memories because memories are fragile, memories can become corrupted, and memories will lead you astray.

She followed him into his dream once, her hands trembling as she pressed the elevator button. She's seen his nightmare, the faceless children laughing in his mind.

"These aren't our children," the Minotaur screams, in a voice that she doesn't recognise.

As the dream shifts again, she reaches for Dom, but she's too slow, and the crowds pull them apart like reflections in a house of mirrors.

_Wake up._

* * *

The Minotaur is lying on the ground, blood bubbling on its lips as it gasps for breath one last time and then stills. When she looks up again, Dom is kneeling above Robert's body, and she can see the despair in his eyes as he presses his hands on the wound.

"This isn't how it was supposed to go," he whispers, and she can already feel the dream shifting around them again, like a moebious strip flipping over. On the floor the Minotaur twitches back into life, its lips twisting into a rictus of a smile as it opens its eyes. She blinks, and the vision vanishes, the body once again dead and still.

"There's still a way," she says, playing into his dream. What's one more lifetime when you've already lived so many?

_Wake up._

* * *

Dom is sitting in the table, reading a newspaper when she comes over to visit him. Every page he turns holds a picture of Robert, and she watches him for a while, tears burning in her eyes as she tries to will him to see what's right in front of him.

She clears her throat, and he looks up.

"Ah, Ariadne. I wasn't expecting you. Is something wrong?"

He folds away the paper, leaving only the words MY FATHER visible on the top, and then cranes his neck to check on the kids playing outside. She can hear their voices, their laughter carrying from outside as they play. The boy runs past the french windows, moving too fast for her to catch a glimpse of his face.

"I need you to come with me."

Dom shakes his head and laughs. "It's Saito, isn't it? He sent you. Tell him that I've done the last job I'll ever do. I'm retired."

The children laugh again and he looks away, the smile dying from his lips. He stands up and walks past her to a small cabinet.

"The children need me. I have to make up for all the mistakes I have made."

He picks up a gilded picture frame, gently brushing his thumb over the picture before handing it over to her. Her own eyes stare back at her from the reflection on the glass.

"I promised her we'd grow old together."

She puts away the picture, setting it face down on the table, and turns to him. He looks so young, much younger than she remembers him ever being, and if it weren't for his eyes, she's not sure she would even recognise him.

"We did," she says, raising his hand to gently touch his face. "We do."

He frowns, words already forming on his lips, but she slips her hand behind his neck and pulls him to a kiss to silence him. He tries to resist at first but she refuses to let him go, whispering his name against his lips as she holds him tight.

"I had a dream," he finally says, his voice thick from confusion. "You were in it. You were.. someone else."

The children laugh as they run past the window again, their faces wrong and distorted, and he closes his eyes, pulling her closer.

"These aren't our children," he whispers into her hair, and she can hear the wind rising like music.

"No, they're not," she says, and on the table the top finally tumbles and falls.

_Wake up._

* * *

He named her Ariadne, and that's the hope she holds onto, the red thread she clutches as she follows him in his dream. It tells her he wants her to guide her to safety, wants her to rescue him from this labyrinth of his own creation.

"Trust me," she says, and the world shifts again, buildings rising from the ground like mighty redwoods. This is her dream also, always has been, and she can control it just as well as he can.

The Minotaur is sitting on the ledge across the chasm, feet dangling in the air as it holds on to the frame of the window.

"The train is coming," it whispers, in that thick voice that she lost years ago. "Can you hear it, Dom? The train is coming."

She takes his hands in hers and turns him away from the window, pulling him into an embrace. This is it, the final kick, the final turn before the end of the maze.

"Wake up," she says, and pushes him out the window before jumping after him.

_Wake up._

* * *

She surfaces from the dream, water flowing into her mouth and nose as she struggles to breathe. Strong hands grab her, lifting her, until she breaks the surface, gasping for air.

"Mom? Are you all right? Mom? Did something happen?"

He's only focused on her, ignoring everyone else. She wants to tell him that his father really does love him - she's seen it, she's seen him build whole world to prove it - but now is not the time.

"He got lost, Robert," she simply says, "He got lost," and then untangles herself from his arms and stumbles to her feet.

Across the room the others are lifting Dom from the tub, and she pushes away from her son and heads towards her husband. Her feet still unsteady she crosses the short distance, leaving droplets of water behind her like a trail of bedcrumbs. Eames gives her a questioning look as he and Arthur help Dom lay down on the floor but she just shakes her head.

"Later," she tells them, her voice still weak, and kneels down next to Dom, taking his face to her hands.

"C'mon, baby," she whispers, her hands tracing the lines of his face. "Wake up."

His eyelids flutter and then finally open.

_Wake up._

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo... I can't have been the only one who thought that the Big Twist at the end of the film would be that Ariadne was actually the real Mal and Fischer was their son. Right?


End file.
